It would have seemed to me that students would have appreciated if their education kept it’s nose out of their social worlds. Here we have examples of educational institutions using social networking with advantageous results.

More changes indicative of the stance PSE institutions are having to take to retool for the future. A full embrace of new pedagogy, available technology, and embracing the contemporary learner will go a long way in these new strategies. It seems to me that this move by SIAST is more proactive than reactive given that institution’s current funding scenario and student enrollment/employment rates.

Here is an interesting example where auditing is free and credit is pay. Secondly, if not firstly, this is the first in Canada (uAlberta) to get their beak wet. They are using Coursera, but also have a working relationship with Udacity on some experimentation. Either way, Bravo uAlberta. Now please be liberal with your findings!

Interesting to note how the MOOC atmosphere is developing. Recently I have been hearing how remedial education may be a hotbed for online courses that aren’t necessarily the size of MOOCdom.

UPDATE: Further, trying to design the course on the fly at the last minute is a recipe for disaster. If you have an environment like that, the issue may not lay with Udacity as much as with poor pre-planning. Perhaps the place for MOOCs is as a supplement to a otherwise walled community type of course. Perhaps MOOCs best fill the need of a resource or tool when responding with a community of practice.